BOSTON — Tuukka Rask shut out the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals last night and got enough help from the Boston Bruins offense to do it without another exhausting overtime.

After playing four extra periods in the first two games, the Bruins made an early night of it with second-period goals by Daniel Paille and Patrice Bergeron to win 2-0 and take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

“We’ll take a win any day,” said Rask, who stopped 28 shots for his third shutout of the 2013 playoffs. “We’ll take a regulation win, for sure.”

Corey Crawford made 33 saves for the Blackhawks.

Boston will carry the momentum of history into Game 4 on Wednesday. In Stanley Cup Finals series tied 1-1, the teams that won Game 3 have gone on to win the title 84 percent of the time (21 of 25).

The intrigue in Game 3 came before the opening faceoff instead of after regulation. Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa was a late scratch because of an unspecified injury.

Hossa, who has three winning goals in the playoffs this year, was tied for the team lead with 15 playoff points and was third on the team with 17 goals during the regular season.

“I was as surprised as anybody else,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said on learning that Hossa wouldn’t play. “I can definitely tell you they lost a pretty important player on their roster.”

Said Blachkawks coach Joel Quenneville: “We’re hopeful he’ll be ready for the next game.”

Hossa’s absence was one the Blackhawks could ill afford. Not with Rask stopping everything that came his way.

The Bruins goalie, who was a backup to Conn Smythe-winner Tim Thomas in the team’s 2011 Stanley Cup title run, didn’t face as difficult a test as in the first period of Game 2, when the Blackhawks sent 19 shots at him but managed just one goal. But he stymied them all game and got some help from the post on Bryan Bickell’s shot with 42 seconds left in the third.

“We ran up against one of the best goalies in the league here,” Quenneville said. “Tonight, I thought we made it rather easy on him as far as traffic and finding and seeing pucks. I think we’ve got to be better at going to the net.”

After a scoreless first period, the Bruins made it 1-0 when Paille slapped in the puck at 2:13 of the second, falling to one knee for extra power. It stayed that way until late in the second, when the Bruins picked up their first power plays of the game on two nearly identical plays, with a Bruins player racing to the net and drawing a tripping penalty from the Blackhawks.

Boston set up its offense during the 11-second two-man advantage, and just five seconds after it expired — but before Dave Bolland was able to get back into the play — Jaromir Jagr slid a pass across the middle to Bergeron on the other side for the easy one-timer.

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